Labour: We should not lose sight of the BBC’s value

ODN

Work & Pensions Secretary, Pat McFadden, insists the BBC is a “valuable” institution as President Donald Trump's legal team has written to the BBC, giving them until Friday to apologise and "appropriately compensate" him.    Report by Ajagbef. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

Transcript

00:00Disappointing news, unemployment is up, biggest number since Covid.

00:07There are challenges in the labour market but over the year 329,000 more people are in work,

00:15real wages are up and the rate of economic inactivity is down over the year so the British

00:21economy is still generating jobs. We want to do more to help, that's why we've announced

00:26a youth guarantee to help young unemployed people in particular and why last week we published an

00:32important report to work with employers to help the long-term sick and disabled stay and work.

00:40Let's talk about young people and their relationship with the Labour Party and your policies.

00:48You're putting taxes up essentially for young people yet keeping the triple log at the other end of the

00:55demographic spectrum. What is in it for young people to continue to support labour?

01:00Well I'm particularly concerned about the growth over the past five years of the number of young

01:07people not in employment, education or training and in response to that we've done a few things.

01:14We have announced a youth guarantee which will offer every person aged 18 to 21 the chance of a

01:21training place, an apprenticeship or ultimately a subsidised job. We are doubling the number of

01:27youth hubs which exist around the country to help young employed people into work but I've also

01:32commissioned former Health Secretary Alan Milburn to do a specific report on young people and work

01:39because I want to do more to expand young people's opportunities.

01:43We're all expecting an interesting budget and obviously I don't expect you to run the rule on

01:52exactly what's going to be in it because well you probably don't quite know yet. But on the one hand

01:58there's costs on the other hand there's earnings. When are you going to start cutting the benefits bill?

02:05Well we want to get more people into work that's why we've announced a youth guarantee. We've put legislation

02:13through Parliament to narrow the gap between standard unemployment rates and long-term sickness rates

02:21and importantly we're also putting a lot more employment support in to help the long-term unemployed,

02:27people that have been away from the labour market through sickness which is an increasing feature

02:32of the labour market and expanding the number of youth hubs to help the young unemployed into work. So

02:37we're taking a much more active approach to this than has been in the case and I believe that that

02:42employment support is really important to getting people into work and spending less on benefits in

02:48the long term. I want to ask you about the BBC, a big story that is convulsing everyone around here

02:56and has been over the last few days. Would you be comfortable with taxpayers money going to fund a

03:03legal challenge against Donald Trump or indeed paying him compensation?

03:08Well the BBC will have to respond to the comments made by the President and his lawyers. What I would

03:16say is when the BBC gets things wrong it should say that and it should correct its mistakes but I don't

03:23think in any of this we should lose sight of how important the BBC is as a public service broadcaster. It's

03:30a really important part of the media landscape. It does take its standards seriously and I believe it's a much

03:37valued UK institution. People say there has been a political tussle behind the scenes which has caused

03:46this. Some have called it a coup. Do you think Robbie Gibb should be removed from the board?

03:53I don't appoint the BBC board. It's not a matter for me. What I would say is it's really important in all the

04:00controversy about the BBC that we've seen in recent days to remember that this is a hugely important

04:06public service broadcaster. I still believe it's a much trusted institution. I think it's a huge asset

04:13to the UK and I want it to come out of this stronger in the future. Do you think there's been a coup?

04:21Well I don't know what's been going on inside the BBC. I know it's had a difficult few days

04:26but like much of the rest of the British public I hugely value it as a trusted source of information

04:34and news. I think it has a positive influence on the rest of the UK media environment so I hope that

04:42we continue to have a strong and trusted BBC for many years to come. Is Samir Shah the correct person

04:48to stay in the role of chair? Well I'm not appointing or not appointing anyone to that. There's already been

04:56some turbulence at the top of the BBC. I don't want to add to that. The important thing for me is not

05:01one individual or another. It's that this institution is a big part of the UK. It's a really important

05:08asset for the UK. It has people who will constantly attack it. It probably always does reports that might

05:17annoy some of us one way or another but we should see through that and remember the value of the BBC to

05:23British journalism.

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